The Commissioner’s meeting was off to a slow start, with no public comment on agenda items.
The Commissioners recognized community leader Wayne Bolt, who passed away last week. Commissioner Laverdure spoke about some of Mr. Bolt’s many contributions to the Monroe County community.
Also notable, Commissioners voted to award a $513,090.00 contract for parking garage repairs to South Shore Construction, LLC, a company based out of Roselle, New Jersey.
When it came time for public comment on non-agenda items, the first speaker was Monroe County Controller, Erik Diemer, who shared his enthusiasm for the Monroe County Conservation District’s annual Bug Fest, which was held this past weekend. Diemer acknowledged that admission was free this year, thanks to a donation from Linda McHugh.
Next, community member Theresa Pesce spoke. She introduced herself and said her statement would be “about voter registration, and it has to do with what’s happened years ago and what’s currently happening now, which puts more of a burden on the election offices throughout our state.” Although unverified, Pesce claimed that Shapiro’s implementation of Automatic Voter Registration has caused issues for our local election workers.
“Governor Shapiro just made it automatic that you get a voter registration at the DMV unless you want to opt out. And with that, it creates more of a burden for election offices, of course because now they have all the more names to keep track of. And I was told by Monroe County Elections Office that they actually cross-referenced multiple times to make sure the people are actually citizens of the United States.”
Pesce continued to speak about voter registration forms, but did not reach her conclusion before the timer went off; she ended her remarks by criticizing Congressman Cartwright and Congresswoman Wild’s recent opposition to the SAVE act.
Next, we heard from Victoria Strunk, President of the Monroe County Bar Association (MCBA), who presented a resolution, passed unanimously by MCBA, supporting increased funding for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Other members of the community (President Judge Margherita Patti Worthington and attorney George Westervelt, among the most notable) have come to the Commissioner’s meetings to express their concerns about staffing issues in the Sheriff’s Office which in turn affect the Court of Common Pleas ability to perform essential functions. MCBA and others credit the many vacancies in the Monroe County Sheriff’s department to competitive wages in surrounding counties, but Commissioner Dave Parker responded that those who have recently left the Sheriff’s office did not mention low pay as a reason for their departure. According to Commissioner Parker, the Sheriff’s deputies were given an average pay increase of 9% in May of this year, on top of a 4% increase the year prior; he also mentions that nearby Counties who offer $20,000 sign on bonuses are also having trouble finding new hires, but finding potential new hires doesn’t necessarily seem to be an issue in Monroe County. Earlier this year, Sheriff Ciranello shared that more than 70 job applications resulted in zero new hires in his department. It is unclear when the staffing issues began, but the Sheriff’s department isn’t the only one that has been struggling. As Commissioner Parker noted, “we definitely see that with other departments, with, you know, District Attorneys leaving for other counties, and other areas.”
Then, in a strange twist, the conversation turned to school taxes. Commissioner Parker stated that he attended the school board meeting for East Stroudsburg Area School District on Monday evening because he was hopeful, given the historic increase in education funding in the Pennsylvania Governor’s recent budget, that residents would be getting some long-awaited property tax relief. I noted that the school boards already finalized their budgets, to which he responded, “they could reopen it and offer a refund. That is an option. And, uh, so hopefully Pocono Mountain, when they meet next week, might consider something like that.” For the record, the Pocono Mountain School Board does not meet again until August. Parker claims “the idea is that money can go back to taxpayers,” but that was not, in fact, the idea. The Governor’s increase in education spending is a solution to the Commonwealth Court’s ruling that the way education is funded in Pennsylvania is unconstitutional. The idea is to properly fund our schools, first and foremost.
The last public comment was from Monroe County Corrections Officer Don Kubik, who first offered words of support for raising wages for Sheriff deputies. He asked for an update on a security gate at the jail, to which Commissioner Parker responded that there is no update. Kubik says he and other officers have been accosted and threatened in the parking lot at the jail. Most shocking, however, was Kubik’s statement that he brought a “binder and a computer full of racist posts by a supervisor, a supervisor who’s promoting violence in the jail and assaulting people, and most concerning is he’s promoting a quid pro quo for sexual favors for overtime in the jail.” Kubik says he reported this to the prison board, but has not yet received a response.